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Report - Lydbrook Cable Works, Forest of Dean - August 2016

28DL Full Member

Hello :) This will hopefully be my first of many reports to come, hope it's suitable.Background (ripped straight from wikipedia)
"In 1912 Harold J Smith purchased land at Stowfield and erected the Lydbrook Cable Works. The First World War provided a number of contracts with employee numbers expanding from 40 to 650 with double shifts being worked. With the end of the War, came a slump in business, and in 1920 the Official Receiver was brought in ending Smith's connection with the factory. The business was bought in 1925 by Edison Swan Electric Company.

With the greater resources available the plant at Stowfield further expanded, and was well placed to help with the Second World War possessing one of only four machines for making lead alloy tube needed for P.L.U.T.O. - (Petroleum Lines Under The Ocean), which allowed fuel to be supplied to the Allied invasion force in Europe from Britain. In the late 1940s, Edison Swan was swallowed up by Associated Electrical Industries. Integrated with the Siemens Brothers Cable Works at Woolwich the Stowfield Factory at its height employed approximately 1,100 people. The Cable Works came to an end in 1966 when the factory was bought by Reed Paper Group, which in its turn was taken over by a Swedish Company SCA. If there were any personal losses to Harold Smith as a result of the Cable Works being taken into receivership these were soon reversed as in the same year he opened the 'Temco Works'."

Exploration
I was staying down here for a week volunteering in a youth hostel when one of the staff mentioned this "abandoned spitfire wiring factory" on the other side of the river, so naturally I had to investigate with some of the friends I'd made at the hostel, although the member of staff warned us of a man who walks around with a big dog. Well, to get across we had to take a closed off old railway bridge that lead almost straight over to the factory. After that access was almost too easy. It was a huge site but we only explored two of the buildings there, planning to go back the next day. We hadn't done any research on it beforehand but naturally when we got back, after a bit of googling I found a few reports on here of people usually saying they got caught by a security guard with a guard dog, as well as quite a few articles in the local newspaper about a guy who'd died there just a couple of months back http://www.gloucestershirelive.co.u...rest-of-dean/story-29440952-detail/story.html
We decided that, actually, we had seen a fair bit of the site and really it just wasn't worth the effort of going all the way back Photos

Railway bridge:

Exterior (though only one of the many buildings is shown here):

Factories:

Offices:

View from offices (The building immediately to the right is the one with the blue and red girders inside):

28DL Full Member

A man in a black Range Rover sport was killed here after he got out of his vehicle and came into contact with 2 members of staff (obviously security), the police were called and he died whilst in police custody, an air ambulance was called but he was pronounced dead at the scene. But I think the security guards have changed as there used to be a South African guard there who was ok(ish) but now there's 2 brummies who are absolute wankers.

See links as I think this is rather suspicious! Maybe a local "businessman" returning to the business park to get back some "stock". Or maybe I'm looking too far into it

Regular User

Don't think so. He's almost like a constant in the exploring world - here we are nearly a decade on and absolutely nothing has changed.

Click to expand...

Got to be nearly 20 years that the site has sat derelict. I think maybe was still in use 94/95 as stayed at the youth hostle as a teenager. Still not done that bit opposite admin, only bit missing photo wise. Last time it looked vaguely in use.